Alchemical Ecology: Rudolf Steiner and the Environmental Movement

The Mahindra Harvard Humanities Center invites you to attend a meeting of the Philosophy, Poetry and Religion Seminar with guest speaker Daniel McKanan, HDS.

For nearly a century, students of Rudolf Steiner’s “spiritual science” have made significant contributions to environmental activism. They created the first certification system for organic agriculture, initiated the lawsuit that inspired Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, invented community-supported agriculture, and founded the world’s largest “green banks.” All of this activity is inspired by a spiritual worldview that might surprise other environmentalists: Steiner drew on alchemy and astrology as well as experimental science, and he taught his students “how to know higher worlds” as well as how to care for this one. In this presentation drawing on his forthcoming book, Harvard Divinity School professor Dan McKanan will offer an overview of Steiner’s contributions to environmentalism, and suggest some of the ways Steiner-inspired initiatives challenge all environmentalists to embrace a broader sense of ecological connection